


The Art of Defying The Wicked

by bakarasaka



Category: Tokyo Ghoul, 約束のネバーランド | Yakusoku no Neverland | The Promised Neverland (Manga)
Genre: Emma not the other hand, Hide is surprisingly easy to write, M/M, Multi, is a bitch to write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21749473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakarasaka/pseuds/bakarasaka
Summary: Outside of here, he was just another kid, a bright average kid who sometimes made perfect scores on his daily tests. In here however, he could be Nagachika Hideyoshi.Here he didn’t have to pretend.{Takes place after Antekiu raid. Reincarnated Hide AU. TPN just happened to be the lucky other universe.}
Relationships: Emma & Isabella (The Promised Neverland), Emma & Norman & Ray (The Promised Neverland), Emma & Norman (The Promised Neverland), Emma & Ray (The Promised Neverland), Isabella & Norman (The Promised Neverland), Isabella & Ray (The Promised Neverland), Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise & Nagachika Hideyoshi, Kaneki Ken | Sasaki Haise/Nagachika Hideyoshi, Norman & Ray (The Promised Neverland)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62





	The Art of Defying The Wicked

* * *

“Hideyoshi, dear. It’s time to get up!” A woman’s voice rang out, waking the blonde from his dream. Hide shuddered, and sat up, looking at his caretaker. 

“Mother?” He asked groggily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Why are you waking me up?”

The woman just smiled, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You were moving around in your sleep, looking like you were having a nightmare. I thought I should,” her purple eyes flashed dangerously. “wake you.”

Hide chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. “You really didn’t have to,” his eyes settled on the woman’s eyes and widened. “do...that...”

The woman, whose eyes were now an all to familiar red and black, twisted her smile into a smirk and got closer to the skin of Hide’s shoulder. 

“Oh, no,” She began, moving even closer. “I insist.”

The feeling of someone’s teeth sinking into Hide’s skin was overwhelming, and unfortunately, familiar. The blonde didn’t scream, instead biting hard on his bottom lip, drawing blood which only seemed to excite the women if her almost purr-like sound was any tell. 

He knew what this women was, but he prayed he was wrong, prayed this was just another nightmare. Ghouls didn’t exist in this reality. They simply didn’t. Sure, the boy knew demons existed, Hide had known for a while. But after years of studying all of the history and biology books he couldn’t find a trace of the species that was so critically important in his past life. 

Hide winced as the women who he knew as his “mother” Isabella, pulled away from his mangled shoulder, licking her lips that were stained with blood. 

“Oh, Hide,” The name sounded wrong, slipping from her lips like poison. “You taste so exquisite. I could simply gobble you  all up !”

Was this how _**he**_ felt with Rize-

Hide was awakened from the nightmare with a familiar head of white hair leaning over him, blue eyes clouded over with worry. 

“Hideyoshi? Are you alright?” Norman tilted his head to the side, smiling warmly at his friend. 

Hide ignored his racing heart, and laughed, placing on his carefully constructed mask. “Yeah, man, I’m great! Just had a little nightmare is all,” he smirked up at the older boy. “And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Hide!?” The blonde added fake exasperation to his tone, which succeeded in making the other laugh. 

Norman back off of Hide’s bed, and began lacing his shoes up. “You better get up,” he advised. “or I might have to drag Emma in here to drag you out of bed.”

Hide’s eyes narrowed as he huddled deeper into his cocoon of warmth. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Norman’s smile turned sharp, in a way he only let Hide and Ray see. “Try me.”

The pair were latched in an intense stare down, which lasted until Hide rolled his eyes and slid out of bed. “There,” he said, playfully glaring at the other boy. “happy?”

Norman nodded, and tossed Hide his shoes. “You might want to hurry,” he commented. “or you’ll be late for breakfast.” Then the white haired boy sprinted off to go help Ray with serving. 

The blonde’s gaze followed him out the door, and as he was left alone in the room, he let his mask falter. “Damn,” Hide’s raspy morning voice whispered. “I thought I was done with those kinda nightmares.” He dragged a hand through his knotted blonde curls, wincing when he hit a certain rough tangle. Hide laughed bitterly. “To bad detangle spray doesn’t exist here.” He muttered, pulling his hand away from his hair. 

As Hide slowly got up, he laced up his shoes, and slipped downstairs where he caught both Norman and Ray’s watchful eyes. He nodded a greeting to both of them, as technically he hadn’t said good morning to Norman yet. When Emma turned to him, beaming smile on her face, Hide let his own sunshine-like smile come over his face. 

“Good morning, Emma!” The blonde exclaimed, slipping into the seat next to Norman and across from Ray. 

The ball of laughter that was the youngest of the four of them, laughed and returned the greeting. “Morning, Hideyoshi!”

“We’re right on time,” Isabella said, ringing the food bell, as all the kids in unison said; “thank you for the food”.

After everyone finished eating, Hide followed the others into the testing room, where he proceeded to slump down in his chair in the back corner. He stayed that way until the test started, then the blonde lazily placed his headphones on his head and answered the questions given to him. 

They all were relatively easy, then again Hide had already lived to collage age with mostly perfect scores. Hide finished before everyone else, so he took the headphones off and leaned back in his chair, waiting for the time to be over. 

As more people finished, the room began to fill with mumbled conversations. Soon, everyone was done and the room was full of chatter and Isabella came back with the results. 

“Norman,” She listed off. “Ray. Emma.” Her eyes widened in surprise as she read the final name. “Hideyoshi.” Isabella looked up with a bright smile that Hide knew was semi-staged. “You all did an amazing job! You got 300 points! Perfect scores!” She turned her smile to the blonde. “Congratulations, Hideyoshi, a perfect score! Keep it up!”

Hide smiled at her, his mask in place. “Thank you, Mother, I will.”

After hearing the test scores, the children followed Isabella outside, all except for Hide. 

“Hideyoshi?” Emma said, turning to face him. “You’re not gonna play?”

Hide smiled brightly at her, shaking his head. “Nah, not today, Em. I wanna read up some more so I can keep getting high scores!”

Emma giggled, and turned to walk away. “Alright, but if you wanna join, you know where to find us!”

As the redhead walked outside, Hide let his face go blank. No use keeping up a mask if no one was there to see it. He headed towards the library, a path he had taken multiple times before. As he walked trough the doors, the smell of old books that reminded him so much of his best friend settled down on him. Outside of here, he was just another kid, a bright average kid who sometimes made perfect scores on his daily tests. In here however, he could be Nagachika Hideyoshi, the kid that was actually in his twenties and from another dimension. After all, the only ones that visit the library was Hide, Ray and a few of the younger kids on occasion. 

Here he didn’t have to pretend, as he grabbed a few books on history and Japan, and slumped to the floor to read. 

{•}

“Those three are out of this world.” Nat commented after the game of tag was over. 

“They say the house has never had three kids at this level together before.” Gilda added as she watched her three friends talk under the tree. 

“No wonder Mom’s so happy with them. They’re extremely skilled in both academics and athletics.” Nat continued as he looked at Gilda. 

“Yeah,” she responded. “Norman’s a genius who has by far the best brains. Ray is just as smart and resourceful as well as knowledgeable. Emma has outstanding motor skills and her astounding learning allows her to follow the other two closely.” 

“Don’t forget about Hideyoshi!” Little Phil exclaimed. 

Gilda laughed. “Your right, Phil! Hideyoshi’s clever and able to keep calm under pressure and plan things in wicked time. Though he only makes perfect scores a few times a month.”

“What could they be eating to make them so great!”

“We all eat the same thing, silly!”

{•}

Hide sighed as he closed yet another book on Japan’s history with yet again, nothing on ghouls. This was his third time reading the book, but just as the first time he read it, there was nothing about the species he used to call normal. 

He heard the chatter from outside, let him know that free time was over and it was time for him to head to the dining room for lunch. As he did do so, he overheard the younger kids gossiping about how it was Conny’s last day today, and how she was so lucky to be getting adopted. Hide plastered on his smile, and bit his tongue. 

Yeah. Lucky. 

The blonde sat down at his regular seat in the dining room, digging into his wrap and fruit that was for lunch today. He could feel gazes on him, so he looked up, mouth full of food. “Wha?”

Ray’s nose crinkled up. “Swallow before you speak.”

Hide rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mom.”

Emma stifled a giggle at the glare fest that was going on between two of her best friends, and Norman shook his head with a smile on his face. 

After Hide swallowed his food (and daintily blotted the corners of his mouth in a way that made Ray throw a grape at the blonde and sent Emma into another giggle fest) he asked again. “So I know I’m handsome, but why were ya burning holes into my head like that?”

“You got a perfect score today, didn’t play tag with us, and have been essentially avoiding us all day.” Norman responded, popping a grape that he stole from Hide’s plate into his mouth. 

Emma nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I thought you woulda taken a day off of doing whatever the heck you do in the library to play tag in celebration.”

“And this is also the first time you’ve spoken to me all day and the day is half over.” Ray quipped. 

Hide rolled his eyes again. “I get high test scores on occasion, so that’s not the big deal. I also have never taken a day off of studying since I’ve been allowed to be alone without supervision, so it’s not that either.” The blonde narrowed his eyes. “Are you guys worried about the fact that I’ve been alone most the day?”

Ray ducked his head, Emma’s ears turned pink and Norman avoided his gaze with heated cheeks. 

Point Hide. 

“Ugh, why do you have to be so good at guessing, Hideyoshi!” Emma whined. “Let us be good friends, okay!”

Hide chuckled, swiping a grape from Norman’s plate to make up for the one the other boy stole. “Alright, alright, fine. I’ll stick to you guys like glue for the rest of the day. Happy?”

Emma grinned, bobbing her head. Ray smirked, satisfaction gleaming in his one visible eye. Norman did his closed-eyes smile and the quartet continued to eat. 

After lunch was over, Hide stuck to his promise, and clung onto Emma’s arm as they hung out on her bed. They stayed there, talking until dinner, where Hide switched to clinging Norman’s arm, then they headed up to Ray’s room to go see Conny. 

“Conny, are you ready?” Emma exclaimed as she burst open the door to see the small blonde girl in her traveling clothes. 

Conny smiled brightly at the three of them, as Ray had slipped away sometime when they moved up to his room. “What do you think of my new clothes?”

“Lovely,” Emma responded, grinning at the small girl. “You look great!”

“I’m going to work hard, even after I leave,” declared Conny. “I’ll be okay, I have Little Bunny with me! Did you know that there is only one Little Bunny?” The girl looked down and studied her stuffed rabbit with affection. “Mom made it only for me. It’s my treasure.” She looked back up at all her siblings and blinded them with a smile. “I’m slow and I wasn’t as good at the tests as everyone else. But when I’m an adult, I want to be a mother just like Mom. And I’m never going to leave my child.” She finished. 

“Come on, Conny,” Ray called, suddenly reappearing making Hide jump. “Let’s finish packing your stuff.”

“Alrighty!” The blonde girl giggled, racing back to her bed to stand by Ray. 

And so they bid Conny goodbye, watching as Isabella led the girl outside to the gate. 

And to her death,  Hide thought. He internally shuddered at the thought of Conny being a mom like Isabella. But the blonde supposed it was better to leave the young ignorant. 

As Hide was heading down the stairs with Ray, he heard Emma yell. “ Conny, you forgot him!?”

“What should I do?” Emma exclaimed, gripping the stuffed animal. 

“But Conny’s already gone.” Gilda pointed out. 

“Maybe not,” Ray cut in. “I saw from the stair window that that lights at the gate were on. And Mom, who saw her off, isn’t back. So I don’t think Conny actually left yet.”

Hide whirled on Ray, staring at him in disbelief, ignoring as Norman and Emma left the house. The blonde dragged the raven into the library, which was empty. 

“What the hell, man!?” He yelled. 

Ray looked at him questioningly. 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” Hide scoffed. “You better pray that they are late and meet Mother on her way back up. If not, you just sent them on a suicide mission.”

Ray’s face turned shocked. “You-you know!?”

Hide glared at him even harder. “Yeah, I’ve known for like forever.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything!?” Ray’s time turned incredulous. “I’ve been spending all these years trying to decide how to tell you guys, only to find out you already know!”

Hide let his mask fall completely, a scowl falling into his face, his eyes darkening, taking Ray by surprise. “I didn’t say anything to spare the other two. I don’t care how mature they are, they don’t deserve to have their innocence robbed from them. Let them live out this fairytale.”

Ray’s expression turned angry. “So you were just going to let them die?!”

Hide stuck his hands in his pockets, looking down at his shoes. “Eighty percent of my impulse control and sixty-three percent of my will to live and care is entrusted with a person who I’m seventy-six percent sure is dead. So yeah.”

The raven was confused by that statement, but ignored it. “Are you happy or not. They’ll know now, and we can plan an escape.”

Hide chuckled sardonically. “It’s not that simple, Ray.”

“No, it’s not,” the other boy agreed. “But it’s a step in the right direction.”

Hide sighed. “Whatever, man. Let’s go wait for them. Let them bring it up first, okay?”

Ray nodded, and the pair moved back downstairs to wait. 

Soon the door opened, and Norman and Emma slunk in. “Welcome back,” greeted Ray. “How did it go?” 

“We didn’t make it,” Norman mumbled, moving past Ray, upstairs with Emma trailing behind. 

Hide noticed they’re empty hands and exchanged a look with the raven. 

They’re empty-handed. 

{•}

Hide and Ray went back into the library after Norman and Emma went to bed. 

“So either they found out, left Little Bunny down at the gate and lied to us, or-well yeah that’s the only option.” The blonde stated, running a hand through his tangled hair. 

“Yeah,” Ray confirmed. “either way, they made a fatal mistake. Now Mom’s gonna be in our trail, and it will be harder to escape.”

Hide sighed, laying back on the ground. “Ray,” his gaze zeroed in on the raven. “how did you find out?”

Ray studied the younger boy, and smiled sadly. “You ever heard of infantile amnesia?” When Hide nodded, he continued. “Yeah, I remember everything, and what I remember didn’t add up.”

“Ah,” Hide day back up. “so what do you think we should do about Em and Norma?”

Ray scratched the back of his neck before answering. “We should just play dumb, until they bring us in, then gradually let them know.”

Hide smiled brightly, putting his mask back up. “Alright, see you in the morning?” The boy got up and headed out the door. 

Ray nodded and watched the blonde leave. “Yeah, in the morning...” But Hide was already gone. 

Ray slumped. “What did he mean by all of that? How did he know about the house? How is he so good at pretending everything is alright? Just how much does he know?” The raven’s eyes narrowed. “And how smart is he really?”


End file.
